


This Means War

by butterflycell



Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: Crack, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-23
Updated: 2012-06-23
Packaged: 2017-11-08 09:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/441760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butterflycell/pseuds/butterflycell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of all the ailments to befall a first year associate - particularly one under the purview of New York's best closer - losing your voice has to be one of the most unpleasant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Means War

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta'd, a little badly done but just a quick, cracky thing I wanted to write up and share!

Laryngitis was a bitch. Seriously, of all the things Mike could've come down with in the middle of a high profile merger, it was something that first made him sound like a toad and then stole his ability to talk altogether.  
  
The doctor had told him not to talk much when he first went – it had been Harvey's idea, forcing him to go his outrageously expensive private place – and he'd been prescribed antibiotics and a day off until his fever had gone and he was no longer contagious. Of course, Mike went back to work as soon as he was free of the medical centre, which meant he went right back to talking a thousand miles a minute as Harvey had him reel off page after page of legal precedent.  
  
And, naturally, this came back to bite him in the ass a few days later when he woke up to his phone ringing, accepted the call and promptly found himself unable to say anything in his own defence as Harvey reamed him out for daring to sleep past half five in the morning.  
  
On his way into the office, he'd done his best to coax his vocal cords into working again, but they stubbornly refused to make any sound at all. Well, that wasn't strictly true, but the sounds they _did_ make made him sound like a ghoul or something as equally dead and creepy and it freaked him out.  
  
He got into the office easily, managing to make it from fast asleep to Harvey's office in a record forty-five minutes. He walked straight in, waving briefly in greeting to Donna as he passed, and dumped the files on Harvey's desk.  
  
“When we're in the middle of a case like this, I expect you to be here before me every day.” Harvey glared at him, feet propped up on the corner of his desk and a baseball held loosely in one hand. Mike opened his mouth automatically, about to protest, when he realised it was pointless.  
  
With a glare, he tugged his legal pad from his bag and snagged a pen from Harvey's desk. He scrawled across it and shoved it over.  
  
“ _'I can't talk, it's your fault, stop yelling at me_ '?” Harvey raised an eyebrow, tossing the pad back onto the desk before smirking slightly. “Okay then, hot shot. Say nothing if you think I, Harvey Specter, am the very epitome of human kindness and humility.”  
  
Mike shot him a withering look and grabbed the pad back, scrawling something else and slamming it back down.  
  
“' _Stop being a dick_ '.” Harvey smiled. “Now, now, that's not very nice, Mike. I must say, you get awfully bossy when you're writing. I think I like it.”  
  
He grinned and Mike grit his teeth, determined not to rise to Harvey's goading.  
  
“See, from your lack of reply, I'm going to take it that you agree.” Harvey dropped his feet to the ground and got up. “I'm also going to take it that you'll accept any punishment I think fits the severity of the situation.”  
  
Mike stared at him and Harvey smirked some more, walking slowly round the desk to face him. Harvey stood there for a moment, looking more and more predatory by the second. “I think I'll see whether Louis has any work for you. You clearly don't want to stay on the biggest merger the firm has dealt with in several years.”  
  
Mike opened his mouth, tried to make a sound in protest – and really, if his voice was going to work at any point, it should have been then – but he only managed that horrible, raspy popping sound that made him cringe. Harvey's expression softened and his smile became entirely genuine and not a little affectionate. He ran a hand up Mike's arm and squeezed it gently. Mike met his eyes for a moment as Harvey's armour came down just a little. In that look, Mike could see the man he was fairly certain he was falling in love with. It may have taken several months of a mixture of casual and comfort sex, but he was pretty sure that they were both going to be in it for the long run.  
  
But then his slick, infuriating work façade was back up and his smile was grin that Mike did not like _at all_.  
  
“Maybe I _should_ farm you out to Louis – I bet that sound would creep him right out. You could go up behind him, try to say something and he'd jump out of--” Harvey was cut off by Mike slamming the legal pad into his chest with a new note before storming out. Harvey smiled as he left, catching Donna's amused expression with a wink before looking down at Mike's parting words. “' _You are NOT a nice person_ '. Oh Mike, I'm a _wonderful_ person.”  
  
He grinned again and lounged back at his desk, feet up and baseball in hand. It was going to be a very fun day.  
  
*  
  
Mike spent the majority of the days being handed case after case whilst he was already in the middle of something. Every single one of them was Harvey's, and he'd personally delivered them all. Each time, he slapped them down without pausing to say anything or interact in any way, and by the time Mike looked up, he was already turning the corner.  
  
Mike was entirely certain that Harvey had a smug grin on his face each and every time he walked by.  
  
His main problem was that Harvey was a heartless bastard. His secondary problem was self-inflicted; he was far too proud to text Harvey and tell him he couldn't get the work done – because he could, but it'd be a close call.  
  
It was a little after eight when he finished the last of the mountain Harvey had left him and finally, _finally_ carried it through to Harvey's office. Donna smiled to herself as he passed by. Pretty much everyone else on the floor had left.  
  
Mike dumped the stack emphatically on Harvey's desk, straight in front of him. Harvey had been sitting back in his chair, tossing a baseball up and down, feet propped up and crossed at the ankle – just as he had been that morning.  
  
A slowly burning irritation began to curdle in his stomach, igniting as Harvey looked over at him with a smirk.  
  
“What took you so long? I assumed from your lack of protest that you were on top of it all.” Harvey asked, catching the ball dropping his feet to the floor. Mike said nothing. He just went to the couch and slumped down. “Now that you're done, we can go through the changes in the Fenton merger and work out a strategy for getting a better deal out of Miller before closing at the end of the week.”  
  
Harvey got to his feet, hands in pockets as he tossed a file in Mike's direction and began to reel off the various ways in which their case needed supporting. Mike was tired and he was getting a headache from a whole day of nearly non-stop reading. It didn't help that Harvey was now turning his monologue into a self-congratulatory saga. Honest to God, Harvey pissed him off _so_ much sometimes.  
  
Mike sat back, teeth gritted as Harvey smirked over how he'd won a case for Fenton a couple of years ago, how he'd clamped it down in a matter of hours, how much money the whole thing had brought into the company – how he was going to do it again with _this_ merger so Mike better not screw this up.  
  
He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets to hide his clenched fists, but the feel of something catching against his skin made him pause. He probed a little and finally wrapped the object around his fingers. It was an elastic band.  
  
Before he even realised he'd had the idea, his hands were up and he was aiming at Harvey's god-damned perfect smirk. All it took was a breath of patience, a slow tug and a quick snap.  
  
Harvey's entire body flinched as his expression twitched, freezing him mid-sentence. Mike didn't realise he was grinning until Harvey turned on his slowly, his face dark.  
  
Mike felt the sudden, childish elation slip away as he caught sight of the elastic band on the floor under Harvey's desk. His eyes had flicked to it for barely a moment, but Harvey followed his look and then turned bodily towards him. Mike held up his hands slowly, as if that would do anything whatsoever, but Harvey paid no attention.  
  
He stalked across the room, Mike pressing back into the couch in an attempt to get as far away as possible. To say he regretted pinging that elastic band was a slight understatement. He couldn't break eye-contact and barely had a chance to think about how to escape when Harvey was in front of him, kneeling down and straddling his lap.  
  
His hands were planted on the back of the couch, each side of Mike's head as he lowered his face to barely an inch from Mike's. Mike was pinned in place with absolutely no chance of escape. He just stared, trying not to blink. Harvey never got this close in the office. Mike swallowed hard.  
  
“I hope you understand what you just started, rookie.” He said in a low voice. A deadly, terrifying smile spread across his face, revealing almost all of his teeth. Mike stayed frozen there for a long moment.  
  
He tried to assess the situation, gauging Harvey's mood and how genuinely pissed he was. His thoughts began to realign and he decided it maybe hadn't been the worst move he'd ever made around Harvey. Slowly, he felt himself regaining control of his limbs and he sat up a little, his nose nudging against Harvey's.  
  
He smiled, challenging Harvey's self-assured dominance. He reached blindly into his pocket for his phone and tapped out a text. Harvey's phone buzzed a moment later and Harvey retrieved it, not moving away as he glanced sideways to read what Mike had sent.  
  
He paused then grabbed Mike's phone, tossing the both of them to the other end of the couch before he surged down and caught Mike's lips in a long, hard kiss.  
  
Mike was vaguely aware of the glass walls frosting over and the door locking – courtesy of Donna – but within a couple of minutes, neither of them could've cared less.  
  
Their phones lay forgotten, both screens showing the same three words: _**This means war.**_


End file.
